The prevalence of obesity and overweight in adolescents and children has today become an increasing burden in Europe, UK, USA, Australia and other developed and developing countries (Connelly, Duaso & Butler, 2007). As observed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17% of children at the age of six to eleven years and 17.6% of those aged between twelve and nineteen years are either overweight or obese (Huberty, Balluff, O’Dell & Peterson, 2010). The World Health Organization (WHO) claim that chronic diseases like diabetes, and obesity may affect social progress, economic growth while hindering development in affected countries (Luft, Giugliani, Harzheim, Schmidt, & Duncan, 2009). The WHO has actually declared obesity and overweight in children as a global epidemic (Connelly, Duaso & Butler, 2007). Although individual prevention and treatment methods have successfully prevented obesity, Pitts and his colleagues (2012) advocated for policy and environmental changes as an effective way of managing diabetes.
In the article, “A Community-Driven Approach to Identifying “Winnable” Policies Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Common Community Measures for Obesity Prevention”, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) carried out a community-based research in 2009. The article focuses on promoting environmental and policy changes to prevent obesity through eating healthy foods and physical exercise. The researchers used a descriptive study design to carry out their research. The study was carried out in a rural setting of Eastern North Carolina. Two counties were selected where one acted as the control region. The counties chosen included Pitt, which was selected based on the fact that a significant number of sick residents live far below the poverty level (Pitts et al, 2012). In this case, individual in depth and face-to-face interviews were carried out on local stakeholders from May to September 2011 in order to identify appropriate policy document and successful policies and discuss current issues on obesity prevalence. Participants included a mayor, a human resource manager from a school, a member of city council, county and town planners and managers and a health promotion dietitian. A group discussion was further held in May 2011 in Lenoir which included 19 members of a community advisory council which involved county commissioner, leaders of health promotion and local business men and women.
Participants were picked through school boards of counties, chamber of commerce, existing health alliance, and through the local government where informed consent also obtained from each member and the response audio recorded. A clearance of the project was also obtained from East Carolina University Medical Centre Institutional Review Board (Pitts et al, 2012).
The research noted that land use policies, access to healthy foods and exercise were directly connected to obesity prevention. In contrast, protection of mainland and demarcation of natural resources were not directly related to obesity prevention. Since all expected stakeholders were involved, the research had a great implication for the program planning and policy development through analyzing obesity as a global issue (Pitts et al, 2012).
Summarily, obesity may be prevented though changing the existing policies first in order to achieve health equity while eliminating health disparities. The community should then be enlightened on the need of evaluating and assessing health outcomes by preventing the disease while promoting health. Lastly, individuals should be encouraged to consider prevention of obesity and other chronic diseases as a personal initiative in order to eradicate the problem (Pitts et al, 2012; Connely et al, 2007). Involving the community is however the most effective way of preventing obesity.
References
Connelly, J., Duaso, M. & Butler, G. (2007). A Systematic Review of Controlled Trials of Interventions to Prevent Childhood Obesity and Overweight: A Realistic Synthesis of the Evidence. Public Health, 121(7), 510-517.
Huberty, J., Balluff, M., O’Dell, M. & Peterson, K. (2010). From Good Ideas to Actions: A Model-Driven Community Collaborative To Prevent Childhood Obesity. Preventive Medicine, 50, 36-43.
Luft, V., Giugliani, C., Harzheim, E., Schmidt, M. & Duncan, B. (2009). Prevalence of Use and Potential Impact of Increased Use of Primary Care Interventions to Prevent Cardiovascular Hospitalizations in Patients with Diabetes. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 85, 328-334.
Pitts, S.,Whetstone, L.,Wilkerson, J., Smith, T., Ammerman, A. (2012). A Community-Driven Approach to Identifying “Winnable” Policies Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Common Community Measures for Obesity Prevention. Preventing Chronic Disease, 9 (11), 1-7.